it was something that people came to washington, d.c. to march about. there was a lot of discussion about it, as you go back and watch old issues of "the west wing," it's like every episode is about gun control. >> absolutely. and then it kind of fell off the map of politics. and i wonder what your understanding why that happened is. >> well, there's actually a couple myths throughout if you know what happened back then if you remember after the bill was pass, the democrats lost the election. what everybody kind of forgets is, also during that term, taxes were raised to get us into the economy. >> sure. right. >> to do what was right for the country. >> right. >> so it was very easy for certain groups to turn that debate around to be a myth. and that myth only grew. that's when you saw a lot members of congress saying i'm not touching this issue again. even the democratic party. started to believe this myth. and even our leadership, on the democratic side, walked away from the issue. >> and in 2000, obviously, al gore lost. and there were lots of people